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Gavin Malkin
=The Pilot= Gavin's early history immediately following the Vannai invasion up to joining the Phoenix Collective is not known and tends to be downplayed by the pilot himself as unimportant. By his own words, he was active as a pilot following the second-wave awakening, hearing the initial call to arms from Armor Corps in 2014, but choosing to ignore it instead and write the group off as doomed to fail. He eventually came to work for the Phoenix Collective out of Chicago following that city's liberation after the Bright Offensive, throwing himself with zeal into a number of rather small and, in the frame of the worldwide conflict against the alien invaders at large, pointless skirmishes throughout the American countryside and occasionally abroad, employed to fight against other human factions as often as the Vannai forces. Two years after the invasion began, that same group he initially laughed off actually did wind up saving the world, and the knowledge of the nanite-sickness afflicting every pilot given power armor was made public. Realizing that he had squandered his time left fighting meaningless battles, he approached the faction following the success of Operation Unity through his employment with the Phoenix Collective and signed a contract with them. Ostensibly this was to get easier access to the medicine developed by TE to stave off the poisoning of his body, but it seems he aims to achieve something more personal from this collaboration. The pilot's record as a mercenary, as disclosed by the Phoenix Collective to the Armor Corps per agreement between the two factions, is surprisingly less than prestigious, with a long history of fighting on the losing sides of conflicts between human parties. Spotted here and there, however, are notes of hard-fought victories against the worst odds, indicating that it is not actually payment that this mercenary seeks, but the struggle of conflict itself. In the time since the Vannai's evident disappearance and their Puppet's gradually dwindling presence on Earth, it remains to be seen where he will go from here. At any rate, he's worked with the Armor Corps consistently enough to earn a modicum of privilege as a regular pilot, even being being allowed to take part in the decisive Operation Mothership in 2017, and has been allotted his own (rather small and plain) quarters at the AC base in New Zealand. Following injuries sustained during Operation Mile High Club, Gavin was temporarily suspended from piloting in order to rest and recover, as he stubbonrly insisted on going without advanced nanomachine-based methods that would have sped up the process dramatically. However, for someone as actively dedicated to fighting as him, the tremendous amount of downtime he's been left with has had a deeply negative effect on his general mood and, in his own words, has "left him with too much time to think". His history before the Suitfall is undocumented and probably not very interesting. Personality Contrary to what one might expect of a veteran mercenary, Gavin is brash, impulsive and emotional, specializing in using his anger and aggression as a weapon. Consequentially, he also tends to be shortsighted and a poor team player; he is a strong believer that the shortest and most direct path to victory is the only one worth taking. His rather defining trait of letting his anger control him in combat means that he does everything he can to avoid leadership roles and prefers to fight alone and without support from allies unless absolutely necessary, if only to avoid the burden of responsibility for others distracting him from getting to grips with the enemy as fast as possible. Off the battlefield and outside his suit, he tends to be much more level-headed, but is still easy to get a rise out of. He enjoys banter, and seems to go the extra mile when it comes to finding ways to offend and irritate his otherwise allies, both for his own immature kind of entertainment and in order to keep a comfortable working distance between himself and those with as much chance of being employers as enemies. He doesn't seem to care for the post-invasion politics of the new world beyond the allegiance he owes to the American Coalition, and has historically shown little to no preference to where his contracts take him or whom he winds up fighting against. His penchant for going with the most inflammatory comments that come to mind in any given conversation can make it difficult to determine what his actual opinions are regarding just about anything, and he's generally rather disliked by those whom have to work directly with him as a result. He's reportedly not very fond of his own name. Appearance A young man with black hair and blue eyes. He is most often seen wearing a g-suit and scarf when doing combat duty. Now that he's taken to meandering through the base more often, he tends to wear casual clothing in neutral greys and powder blues, in contrast to the rust-red mecha he pilots. Relations & Allies Armor Corps Albrecht Ryman/The Rymans (Mecoptera): Ryman and Gavin's relationship has continued to deteriorate to the point where they can barely work together on the battlefield, and can't be kept in the same room with one another without getting into a fight (which Valkyrie tends to have to break up). And now there are two of them! Fuck! Amano Shizuka (Blitzpferd): Gavin'll miss having the bubbly engineer around more than he'll ever admit now that she's moved on to help with the Libra project, though he knew that's where she would wind up one day anyways. He regrets not treating her better while she was around, but is content that she'll be out of harm's way now. Asuka Durbize (Rook): After a flaunted lack of concern for the missing pilots during Operation Sigma Oscar Sigma, Gavin appears to have managed to irritate Asuka in a rather personal way. Mark Wolfe (Silver Knight): Gavin seems to possess a rather mild dislike for Mark that goes beyond his usual facetiousness, the only reason given thus far being that he finds the pilot's penchant for heroics "annoying". Stan Geraldo (Buio): An individual Gavin managed to irritate shortly after first arriving at the Armor Corps base with disparaging comments towards cyberbrains, and then insulting him directly while in the middle of a mission. They've crossed paths few times since then, but one way or another their working relationship appears unaffected. The Engineers Tommy Wilder (Carrier Prime): Although Gavin has had some interactions with the leader of TE prior, the events of Operation Mountain Rush showing hints of the lengths Tommy is willing to go to gain more alien technology has lead to him considering the friendly mad scientist in a more suspicious light recently. Gavin himself is the only non-AC member to know of the secret locked in the TE base's deepest labs (or, at least, one of them); a secret he's kept to himself so far. Editi Eadrom (Carrier Prime's AI): Though Editi's supposed emotional instability and shocking disregard for moral boundaries are often joked about, Gavin's never seemed to take them seriously, or, at least, as a threat. If he has any solid opinion of "the real hand behind TE", its that she's too cagey. If so much as half of those rumours turned out to be true, however, they'd vindicate many of his spoken reservations regarding uplifted AI. Moqaddas Alvilda Elofsdottir (Valkyrie): Gavin knew her first as the mission controller for Operation Mothership. He learned afterwards that she had been a fierce warrior before murky circumstances pulled her from the frontlines to a command position in an artificial body. He considers her a somewhat mysterious and distant individual, but she earned his trust and respect after hearing out his issues during his downtime after Operation Mile High Club. Othinus (Valkyrie's AI): He's been accused of developing some kind of weird tsundere crush on Valkyrie's AI. This is absolutely not true, no matter what Carcer says, and suggesting otherwise with him in the room is a good way to start a fight. Green Initiative "Turtle" (Turtle): Gavin watched the Turtle die in a rather bizarre and simultaneously unnerving manner first-hand during Operation Mountain Rush. Not knowing him in any personal capacity, he carries no guilt over the long-time GI operative's death, but is highly suspicious that others in Armor Corps might pin the blame on him due to the circumstances of his demise. Phoenix Collective Amanda Kelly (Clownfish): The only other Phoenix Collective and American Coalition member at the AC base for a long while, though Gavin never actually met her before she left to parts unknown. Carcer Carmine (Marauder): Despite their apparent differences in character, Gavin would find that he and Carcer had more in common than initially thought, and the two quickly formed a strong friendship over a long string of successful operations. Gavin's come to rely not only on his wingman's penchant for powerful guns and sharp tactical perception, but also his rationality and empathy, both running counter to and complimenting his own impetuousness and recklessness. Considering Gavin's slight changes in attitude over time, it could be said that the man's better habits are starting to rub off on him. Elena Wagner (Yuki): As much as Carcer seems to like the elf and works to bring her into the fold, Gavin still thinks she's too mysterious - though he might just be salty about failing to get to know her at all. He at least has learned to trust in her marksmanship. "Loose" (Loose Sexkiller): Another merc fresh from Chicago that Gavin has had absolutely no interaction with, save for that one time he showed up plastered at a bar. Seems a bit jumpy. =The Suit= Intersect Thunderbolt is a Heavy-class "power armor", though truthfully it is a mecha due to having a sit-in cockpit and independently powered limbs. Originally a high-speed, heavyweight aerial interceptor equipped with explosive lances, the suit has changed significantly from its original incarnation over time with access to TE expertise and resources. Standing at 5 meters tall and weighing 15 tons, the suit has no ranged weapons to speak of, relying wholly on two forearm-mounted chainblades and the pilot's own ferocity as means of attack. The whirling of the blades at their full speed give off a distinctive shriek that the suit has become known for and accentuate the suit's vaguely draconic physical features, becoming especially noticeable once the suit and pilot enter berserker mode. The pilot enters the suit through a raised hatch directly below the suit's head, where the suit can be operated from a reclined position with a set of manual controls. Optimized purely for offense, the suit possesses only minimal sensory equipment: a basic panoramic HUD and communications package, and a rarely-used and frequently explosive Hawkeye. Though no amount of engineering magic could improve the suit's incredibly poor handling and dexterity, the suit makes up for it with tremendous strength and striking power, out-punching even Fortress-class suits. In addition, the suit possesses a rudimentary AI to help maintain posture and coordination during movement and make the suit actually 'pilotable' by an unaugmented human. The pilot has staunchly refused anything more advanced, loudly proclaiming disgust with the "wAIfu phenomenon" pervasive throughout AC ranks. The suit also has mounting hardpoints on its hull for passengers, but so far no one's been brave enough to try riding it. Suit Crunch Category:PACYOA: TE Category:Heavy Category:Phoenix Collective Category:American Coalition